Parish marks ‘Environment Month’

The Sto. Niño Parish in Tacloban City. ISRAEL FRANCIS PARGAS

TACLOBAN City – Besides reciting the Oratio Imperata In Times of Calamities, Deluge, and Pestilence during Masses, the Sto. Niño Parish in this city is showing extra care for Mother Nature by celebrating “Environment Month” this July.

The coastal parish, one of the parishes in the city whose church suffered great damage and lives lost during super typhoon Yolanda in November 2013, organized mangrove tree-planting and a clean-up drive in two of its coastal barangays.

“We, parishioners, have the responsibility to one another but much more also to the environment entrusted to us by God,” SNP vicar Eugene Almamento said in an interview.

The priest stressed that the parishioners should take the initiative to care for the environment and to not pollute it.

Year-round care

According to Almamento, the parish is also planning to organize a forum on Laudato Si, particularly on Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for the environment.

He also emphasized the need for the people to take on the challenge of caring for and rehabilitating the environment not just on special occasions but year-round.

This advocacy, he said, “must create in us the consciousness that we should continue this cause and make preservation of Mother Nature a part of our system for the future of our next generation.”

“We need to protect and develop what God has entrusted to us and thank Him for his creation,” he said.

On July 16, a short film was shown after the post-communion prayer, on the environmental destruction caused by super typhoon Yolanda and other natural calamities in the country.

Families in need

Meanwhile, the SNP joins the Archdiocese of Palo Rescue and Rehabilitation Unit (Caritas Palo) in raising funds to help the survivors of the July 6 and July 10 quakes in Leyte with epicenters in Jaro and Ormoc City, respectively.